word will store their minds with facts and doctrine. While the prayer itself will be no inconsiderable instructer. The very engagement will remind them of the presence and agency of God. Your addressing him for pardon, will convince them of guilt; your interceding for your country, will teach them patriotism; for your enemies, forgiveness of injuries; for all mankind, universal benevolence. Thus a man may bless his household.-Let us consider, II. THE REASONS WHICH SHOULD ENGAGE HIM TO AT TEMPT IT. For this purpose, let us view Domestic Religion, A First, In reference to God. To him it has a relation of responsibility. We are required to glorify God in every condition we occupy; in every capacity we possess. poor man is required to serve him: but if he becomes rich, his duty is varied and enlarged; and from the hour of his acquiring wealth, he will be judged by the laws of affluence. A single man is required to serve God as an individual only; but if he enters into connected life, he must serve God as the head of a family, and will be judged by the duties arising from his household-relation. God has given him a talent, and he is to make use of that talent. He has committed to him a trust, and he is to be faithful to that trust. He has made him a steward, and he is to give account of his stewardship. "I assigned you," will God say, "the empire of a family. To qualify you for the office, I furnished you with authority, and influence, and resources. How have you employed them? Where are the servants and children you were to have trained up for me ?" -A relation of gratitude. How much dost thou owe to his kindness and care! Who crowned the wish of thy heart, in granting thee the object of thy dearest choice? Behold thy wife, like a fruitful vine by the sides of thy house; and thy children, like "olive plants round about thý table." Who has supplied not only all thy personal, but all thy relative wants? Whose secret has been upon thy tabernacle? Whose providence has blessed the labour of thy hand? Whose vigilance has suffered no evil to befal thee, and no plague to come nigh thy dwelling? And wilt thou refuse to serve him, with a family which he has formed and secured, and sustained and indulged? And wilt thou, instead of making thy house the temple of his praise, render it the grave of his mercies? -A relation of dependance. Can you dispense with God in your family? What are all your schemes, all your exertions, all your expectations, without him? "Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain. It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows: for so he giveth his beloved sleep." How wise is it then to secure the favour of one, who has all things under his control, and is able to make them all work together for your good, or conspire to your destruction. And has he not bound himself by promise and by threatening?"The curse of the Lord is in the house of the wicked; but he blesseth the habitation of the just." What may not be dreaded from the curse of the Almighty? What may not be expected from his blessing? Under the one, the evils of life become intolerable: we sow much, and bring home little; we earn wages to put it into a bag with holes; our table becomes a snare; our successes gender many foolish and hurtful lusts; our prosperity destroys us. Under the other, a little is better than the riches of many wicked; our trials are alleviated; our sorrows are tokens for good; our comforts are enjoyed with a relish others never taste; the voice of rejoicing and of salvation is in the tabernacles of the righteous.-Therefore, Secondly, View it in reference to yourselves. You ought to be concerned chiefly for your spiritual welfare; and should value things as they tend to restrain you from sin, and excite you to holiness. If this maxim cannot be denied, let us judge by this rule-the man who performs this duty, and-the man who neglects it. Can he give way to swearing and falsehood, who is going to hear from God, and to speak to him? Can he throw himself into a fury, who is just going to hold intercourse with the source of peace and love? Must he not guard his temper and conduct, even on the principle of consistency? The other exonerates himself from the reproach of hypocrisy; and because he makes no pretensions to duty, thinks he is justified in living as he pleases. And this it is that restrains many from adopting the practice. They think that it would embarrass them; that it would abridge their liberty; that it would fix upon them the charge of inconsistency. And so far they think justly. But here is their folly; in viewing a freedom from moral motives and restraints as a privilege! and an obligation to urge them to what is right and beneficial in itself, as an hardship and complaint! And the practice is not only right, but every way profitable. While you teach, you learn: while you do good, you are gaining good. Your mind will be tranquillized by a confidence in God, which you alone are justified in reposing, and which you alone can repose in him. How much does your comfort depend on the dutifulness of those that are under you! But how can you look for morality without piety? It is by teaching them to regard God, that you must teach them to regard yourselves, and to be diligent and submissive in their places. It is thus you bind them by sanctions the most powerful, and which operate in your absence, as well as when you are nigh. It is thus you are not only obeyed, but regarded and honoured. Religion, when it is consistently exemplified, always inspires respect and reverence. But what hold have the irreligious on the homage of others? So true it is even here, "They that despise me shall be lightly esteemed."-View it, Thirdly, In reference to the Family. By how many ties ought the members of your household to be endeared! "And we do love them." But wherein does your love appear? Can you imagine that it only requires you to ask, what shall they eat, and what shall they drink, and wherewithal shall they be clothed? What is the body to the soul? What is time to eternity? Do you wish to do them good? Can any good equal that godliness which is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, as well as of that which is to come? Were you to suffer your children to go naked, to perish with hunger; were you to leave them in sickness to die alone, you would be shunned as inonsters. But you are far more deserving of execration, if you infamously disregard their spiritual and everlasting welfare. Doubtless Herod was viewed with horror by those who had witnessed the massacre of the infants of Bethlehem: but he was far less cruel than some of you. He slew the children of others; you destroy your own. He only killed the body; you destroy both body and soul in hell. Had you any real love to your children, what would be your feelings in life, to see them going astray, and verifying, by the evils of their conduct, that the way of transgressors is hard-while conscious that you had done nothing to secure them from it! But what at death would you think of a meeting that must take place between you and your children in the great day! Then they will rise up against you in the judgment, and cause you to be put to death.- Cursed be the day of my birth! Why died I not from the womb? Why was I not as a hidden, an untimely birth, as infants that never see light? Thou father, and thou mother, the instruments of my being-to you I am under no obligations. You only consulted your barbarous inclinations-You gave me an existence over which you watched while I could not be guilty; but mercilessly abandoned me as soon as I became responsible-As the creature of a day, you provided for me; but as an immortal you left me-you made me—to perish. I execrate your cruelty. I call for damnation upon your heads-and the only relief of the misery to which you have consigned me, is, that I can reproach and torment you for ever." 6 From such a dreadful scene, how delightful is it to think what a happy meeting there will be between those who have blessed their households and the favoured subjects of their pious care! Yea, without going forward to this period of mutual and happy acknowledgment, what a joy unspeakable and full of glory must such benefactors feel even now, when they hear a servant saying- Blessed be God for the hour I entered such a family. I was as ignorant and careless as a heathen-but there the eyes of my understanding were opened, there my feet were turned into the path of peace." Or when they hear a child confessing, "O! what a privilege that I was born of such parents! How early did they teach me to know the Holy Scriptures! How soon they led me to the throne of grace, and, by teaching me to pray, furnished me with the best privilege of life! How patiently they watched, and how tenderly they cherished, and how wisely they directed every pious sentiment and every holy purpose!--And, "As a bird each fond endearment tries, To tempt her new-fledged offspring to the skies, It is thus their children rise up and called them blessed!Let us view it, Fourthly, in reference to Visitants and Guests. These, instead of inducing you to decline the practice, should fur nish you with argument in support of it. Wo be to you, if you shrink back from the duty in compliment to the rich, the infidel, the irreligious, or the dissipated-should such ever be found beneath your roof! For he that is ashamed of me and of my words," says the Saviour, "of him will the Son of Man be ashamed, when he comes in the clouds of heaven, with the holy angels." It is not by concealing your principles, but by owning them, verbally and practically, that you must be useful to others, and gain their respect. And here you have an opportunity to confess Him before men; and without going out of your way to effect it. It cannot appear to be sought after, to give offence. It comes, in the regular course of your household arrangement. And nothing is more likely, without effort and without officiousness, to awaken attention, to inform, to admonish. The preacher remembers well the acknowledgment of a man now with God. He moved in superior life; and from his rank and talents, and extensive and various acquaintance, was likely have persons frequently at his house who were strangers to his religious economy. He said his manner was, when the time of domestic service arrived, to inform them that he was always accustomed to worship God with his family: if they disliked the practice, they might remain; if they chose to attend, they might accompany him into the library. He said he had never known any that refused: and many of them owned they were much struck with the propriety and usefulness of the usage, and resolved, on their return, to adopt it themselves. The Lecturer has also known several individuals himself, whose religious course commenced during a visit to a family who thus honoured God, and were thus honoured by him. It is recorded, I believe, of Sir Thomas Abney, that even when he was lord mayor, and on the evening of the feast, he told the company that he always maintained the worship of God in his house; that he was now withdrawing for the purpose; and should presently return. There are few professors of religion who could have done this. They would not have had consciousness enough of their claim to confidence in their integrity. But where the thing was known to be, not the pretence, or show of extraordinary sanctity, but the steady and uniform operation of principle: not an exemption from his common conduct, but, fine as it was, only a fair specimen of the whole piece; this noble resolu |